Translator: Alan Watson Reviewer: Queenie Lee
Hello.
Today I'm going to talk about
the reasons why I've chose to become a full-time artist.
After high school,
I was studying for a degree in economics and arts at a university in the U.S.
While I was studying,
I thought I'd be the one out of the Asian fellow students,
who would become a banker, an accountant,
or a marketer after graduating.
For arts, at that time I had no interest. None at all, really.
It's been two years since I graduated.
What I am is an artist, an illustrator.
And in these two years, I've been to a wide variety of exhibitions,
and attended the interviews hosted by media for many times and places.
It's my honour, the first time this year, I've been presented
as Key Art Design in the 38th Hong Kong International Film Festival,
the youngest designer.
(Applause)
You may ask, why did I take this career?
Thinking about parents' hard-work, sending us to study abroad,
why did you choose such a different, often blocked road?
I also asked myself and I think it's because drawing is my passion.
How can I turn my interest into a career?
I think it's because studying abroad gives me the opportunity
to see the outside, to explore places like the U.S., Japan, Italy.
And then I found the narrowness in vision is overwhelming in the main trend of HK,
compared to so different from that of other countries.
What kind of the options for the arts?
It can be found from ... Sorry.
Let's look at the difference between the two signs of the toilets.
This one is the most common sign for the toilet in Hong Kong,
it shows a man and a woman, right?
That one comes from my university.
'All Gender Restroom'. What does it mean?
Apart from men and women in their world,
there are cross-dressings, transsexuals,
boys who want to be girls, vice versa, also people who deny their gender.
When faced with the choice to pick up,
why should we put limits on our own between only male and female?
Unfortunately, Hong Kong,
is such a place too black and white,
where we are so used to a particular pattern, either definitely or utterly,
just like passion and career, truly among and between.
When you guys were kids, you were sent into an after-school study by the parents
to learn the violin performance, swimming, and singing, etc.
If you get good scores in school, and then you are the best of best, right?
Well, when you're in secondary schools, facing the public exam - HKDSE,
you were told to drop off all your extracurricular activities,
just focus on public examination,
it's the only thing to be worth doing, urgent and important.
But what's really the real business?
We all know the saying: Don't judge a book by its cover.
What colour?
The top three careers were chosen by the full-A students in Hong Kong,
are in law firms, medical school, and finance service.
Well, I want to share a story of an alumna who was studying in my high school.
She excelled at physics, so much so,
that she went to CUHK for further study with full-A scores in HKDSE.
But the housewives, her family friends,
said sarcastically, 'She loses her mind. What a waste of hard science'!
But she just focused on studying, taking no notice of the gossiper,
and now she's a PhD candidate in Physics at UChicago.
She said she will concentrate solely on research to win the Nobel Prize someday,
and then back to HK, she wants to be the Director of Hong Kong Observatory,
which I'm so excited to see if it turns out to be true.
So does the main culture really matter?
I don't really mean ...
What I'm not trying to say is the main trend is wrong.
One of my friends, she was so brilliant, a winner of scholarship,
went to the US opting for an MBA.
She now works at an investment bank.
There's no issue.
As long as knowing what she's capable of is data collection and analysis
to make this work, she's been trying to shape her goals.
So, I think the key question of course
is if you ever really thought about what's your strength.
And then when you found it does not belong to the main trends,
do you truly know how much you want it or how hard you try?
How to be an artist is kind of the things did not and will not learn in school.
How to survive? I have no ideas.
No mentor, no beacon, nothing at all.
I don't know - life is like an ocean, how can I reach the other shore?
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
So I have to strike out on my own: engaging with the senior figures,
sending business cards, exhibiting at my own expense,
even e-printing a piles of posters.
From Sheung Wan to Wan Chai,
so much so that I walked into every gallery in my way,
asked them would you mind taking just a glimpse of my pieces.
That's an awkwardly embarrassment.
Well, it's really ...
We have to work so hard with the goals we do,
knowing we're the breadwinner, trying to make ends meet.
But when we slightly had the achievement,
you know, it rewards people who get things done.
It's a pleasure and joy, the best moment of the day.
Finally,
what I want to say is try to go your own way.
When you are decided to go your own way,
nothing but your perseverance is the cardinal virtue.
It may sound wordy, but the old cliche is often true.
As you are marching forwards for your goals,
people may whisper something like,
'You should try this way or that one,
otherwise, just quit it or out of the business'.
It literally took only five seconds to comment something like that,
they are not liable for what they said,
their words and deeds.
Only you and you alone take responsibility for yourself.
So bogging in the darkest moment, disoriented and vulnerable,
going in the wrong direction, losing my way,
I'm a little bit panic.
At that time, I ask myself the same question -
like never forget where you come from -
so what's my mission?
What is my passion for in the beginning?
If you take home one message today: Just keep being yourself,
leave your footprints on the path of your splendid life.
Thank you for your coming.
(Applause)